Friday, 1 March 2013

Korean firm buys Nigeria’s power plant

The
National Council on Privatisation (NCP) on Thursday approved the sale
of 70 per cent of Egbin power plant in Lagos to a Korean firm, KEPCO
for $407.3 million.

The Chairman of the Technical Committee of
NCP, Mr Atedo Peterside, stated this in an interview with State House
Correspondents in Abuja after the monthly meeting of the Council.

The meeting was presided over by its chairman, Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Peterside said the Egbin plant was currently valued at over $670 million, more than the $549 million placed on it in 2007.

The
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Government began
negotiations in 2007 to sell only 51 per cent equity share of the plant
to the firm.

He also revealed that the Council approved the sale
of power generation plants at Omotosho in Ondo and Olorunsogo in Ogun to
Chinese firms as part of the ongoing privatisation programme of the
power sector.

Peterside said the two plants, Omotosho and
Olorunsogo, which were being constructed by the Chinese firms, were
valued at $166 million.

According to him, the NCP offered the plants on right of first refusal to the Chinese firms.

He
said this was because they would naturally understand the plants better
and have agreed to a sale price the Council considered reasonable
enough.

He said that except for Afam plant, “every other power plant owned by PHCN now has a core investor”.

The
Chief Executive Officer of Forte Oil, a partner of Amperium Consortium,
Mr Akin Akinfetiwa, presented a confirmation of payment of $33 million
and a local component of N519.12 million paid into NCP’s account.

Peterside,
who received the confirmation letter on behalf the NCP, said the amount
represented 25 per cent down payment for acquiring 51 per cent share of
Geregu power plant.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Alhaji Musa Sada, also briefed the correspondents on the outcome of the meeting.

He
said the Council deliberated on the report of the progress being made
by the Attorney-General of the Federation on the issue of arbitration
delaying the privatisation of the Ajaokuta steel plant and Aluminum
Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON).

“We are beginning to see
that very soon we are likely to conclude some of those issues, such that
BPE will take full charge of these two important facilities that are
appropriately privatised, not the way it happened before that is now
putting us into these issues.

“This time, it will be in such a way
that they will come back to contribute the way that they are expected
to as major industrial backbone of the Nigerian economy,” Sada said.

The
Acting Director General of the BPE, Mr Benjamin Dikki, also announced
the NCP’s approval of five draft bills for onward transmission to the
Federal Executive Council for further approval.

They are the Inland Waterway; Ports; Railways; Road sector and the National Transport Commission bills.

He
said the Council also approved the NIPOST reform bill, which he said,
would make the postal agency to return to its role of regulating the
industry.